


Everything Good and Bright

by BlossomingRosebud



Category: Snedronningen | The Snow Queen - Hans Christian Andersen, 신의 탑 | Tower of God
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Retellings, Found Family, Gen, day 4 prompt: snow queen, fairytales tog week, fairytalestogweek2020, why being stabbed by a mirror is not a good time for anyone involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26700088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomingRosebud/pseuds/BlossomingRosebud
Summary: One day, a cursed mirror crashed and fell to earth, making people see all that was ugly and wrong and forget the good.Bam sets off on a journey to find his childhood friend Khun after he mysteriously changes and disappears. He has no idea what he's doing, so it's a good thing he finds plenty of help.Or, a retelling of the Snow Queen story for Day 4 of fairytales tog week!
Relationships: Androssi Zahard & Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace, Khun Aguero Agnis & Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace, Khun Aguero Agnis & Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace & Rak Wraithraiser
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	Everything Good and Bright

**Author's Note:**

> So I am very much late to the party, but here is my submission for day 4 of fairytalestogweek on Tumblr! I got inspired by pi-a-ia's Snow Queen fanart and thought it'd be a lot of fun to make a story based on it. Like seriously, I kind of borrowed all of their character associations, so please check out the original:
> 
> https://pi-a-ia.tumblr.com/post/630193459971637248/fairytales-tog-week-day-4
> 
> So, the result is a retelling of the story "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Anderson, but with my spin on it! I don't think you need to know the original to understand this, but the original prelude that I don't include in this story which might be important would be that these demons make this mirror that reflects only the ugly parts of everything and distorts the good. They try to carry it to heaven to mock the angels, but they drop it and it falls to earth and shatters in a million pieces and gets in all these people's eyes and hearts and all that jazz. Fun times.
> 
> So yeah, hope y'all enjoy!

_“…he made a mirror that caused everything good and beautiful to shrink to almost nothing, and anything that was worthless and ugly to stand out and look even worse. The most beautiful landscapes looked like cooked spinach in it, and the best people became nasty looking…”_  
  
—Hans Christian Anderson, “The Snow Queen”

+++

Bam felt like a knife had been driven straight into his heart, even though he was not the one who had been stabbed with the shard.

Not that he would know any of that. The young orphan boy’s body grew still with knees in the snow as his mind raced, numb to everything, searching desperately for at least the slightest clue as to what happened. It crossed his mind how two weeks ago, after finding Khun sulking in the woods after another fight with his father, his hands suddenly clenched around his chest and his right eye at once, saying he felt like something was in his eye and a thorn was in his chest, but Bam couldn’t see a thing. Then the pain seemed to stop, and Khun said it was nothing, with that same reassuring smile that Bam knew from him so well.

It was the day after that when quickly, everything fell apart. His friend began to change—suddenly he became so much angrier, so much more bitter. He snapped at everything; his eyes went dark, the right and the left. Bam didn’t understand. He wanted to talk to him, but it was too late. He couldn’t, because Khun was gone.

_“Worthless!” he yelled at the vendor, his hands shaking from where they clenched the table. “Why would you even sell this!? What kind of trick is this!?”_

_“Khun!” Bam pulled him away by the arm, too terrified to do anything except by force. “Please, stop! The apples are fine—see?”_

_“Bam, can’t you see? They’re rotting!”_

_“Khun, they aren’t!” Bam kept clenching his arm, his gaze turning desperate. He didn’t know what to do. He had been worried, and he asked everyone he knew for help, but no one would. Their schoolmaster, Hansung, was unbothered, saying had been Khun lately had been acting smarter, like he knew he could be. His sister, Kiseia, didn’t care about the question at all._

_Khun pulled away from his grasp, the look in his eyes like icy stone, bland but sharp enough to tear into Bam’s heart with a glance. “Bam, you don’t understand. You can’t trust anybody. No one is good—don’t you get it!? They’re trying to cheat you! People are only nice because they want something from you!”_

_“N-no!” Bam stuttered in response. “That’s not right! You know that! There_ is _good, just—”_

_“No, there isn’t!”_

_“Then what about_ me _!?” Bam felt hot tears form in his eyes. “Do you still trust me?”_

_“Bam you don’t know a—” Khun cut himself off before he finished. He never finished what he was thinking, but what he said was enough. It was enough for Bam to hear the same tone he used when he was about to insult something or someone, about to cut them down in anger. And Bam wasn’t the only one horrified to hear him say it. Khun stopped with all the fury drained from his face, words vacant as he stared into Bam’s. He stared at Bam like he was lost, like he was looking for something, but he couldn’t find it. Bam’s heart sunk further when he realized that Khun couldn’t find it._

Khun went missing the next morning, vanished from their little town without a trace. The neighbors said he might have drowned in the river. Bam desperately wanted to look for him, although he knew he couldn’t. He was still indentured to the Dong-gul family—he would be working for them until he was sixteen, and that was still three years from now. They would never agree to let him leave for what might take days and days. And he didn’t know who else would help, or who would listen. Bam was nothing but a small, weak farmhand, an orphan for as long as he or anyone else knew. Khun had been his only friend. He was like a brother to him, in spite of belonging to the richest family in town. Even though Bam was sure his parents didn’t like him, everything was fine. They were friends, and nothing else mattered.

Bam wondered if all those thing Khun said had something to do with his eye, or if it was because he had been growing cold all along. Had he been getting bitter all this time, and Bam just didn’t notice? He knew his friend was stressed. He knew his family expected a lot from him, that they would say things that were hurtful. Bam never thought anything he did could ever help, but he never thought he would be this useless.

The days passed by and no one went to search for Khun, so Bam decided that he would. He said goodbye to the town and the steadily melting snow that once covered it like a blanket without saying anything at all, sorry for his deserting everybody, but also realizing that Khun was the one person he didn’t want to leave behind. So, simple as that, he was going, and nothing would stop him.

+++

Bam couldn’t remember the last time he had felt wanted somewhere.

It was enough to, if only for a little while, make him want to stay in this garden with the talking flowers and the mysterious red-haired woman who tended to them. She lived in a home filled with books, the house surrounded by beautiful garden. Bam could tell that Hwaryun was content here, however long it must have been, since while her face looked young, her eye seemed ancient—the left one, since her right was covered with an elegant black eyepatch. Bam wondered what happened to it. Did she get something in it, like Khun did? But Hwaryun was neither angry nor bitter; she welcomed Bam into her garden that the river brought him to. Bam searched the river first, and he knew almost for certain now that Khun was not in it, but he didn’t know where he was, either.

Bam enjoyed the food Hwaryun gave him, the talks she invited him to initiate as he told her his story of how he got here, and all the other stories of memories before that. She seemed to find him interesting, although he couldn’t quite understand why. She seemed almost amused at his storytelling, which might be a bad thing—he knew he wasn’t as intelligent as Khun was—but Hwaryun didn’t appear to have bad intentions, so Bam was fine with it. He was fine with it as the days past, as he observed the wonder that was the woman’s extensive library, and he learned all the things about the garden and the creatures in it that he never knew before, like their names and how they came to be.

But Bam stayed for too long, he realized as the season changed from spring to summer, and he still knew nothing of where Khun could possibly be. He asked all the flowers, but they had nothing to say to him but their own stories. Hwaryun wanted him here, but it shouldn’t be forever.

“Hwaryun!” Bam ran to the porch with his traveling clothes on—the black shirt and red vest he came with, and the white scarf that Hwaryun had given him. He saw her seated there with a book in hand, and instantly, Bam grew worried, because he didn’t want to be mean by leaving her, but Hwaryun just smiled like she expected this all along.

“Don’t leave without some food for the road.” She handed him a satchel from the ground, already prepared and carrying the scent of bread. “I know you’re going to be reckless, but you can at least try not to starve while doing so. Also, watch out for bandits.”

“T-thank you, Hwaryun!” The worry faded quicker than snow, and Bam smiled wide at the older woman who had taught him so much. “For everything! Your garden is really beautiful, and…thank you for showing me it! I can’t really repay you back now, but I’ll back! One day!”

And with that, he took the satchel Hwaryun offered, and he walked off away from the gardens, his sights now set on the distant northern hills.

+++

“You see, it’s all because Prince Urek was _really_ bored, and all he wanted was a good sparring partner who could go toe-to-toe with him and not be scared or overly formal—a lot of people like to flatter him, but he hates it. Now, I _am_ an awesome sparring partner myself, but I do keep changing back into a crow randomly when I fight, so that’s a problem, I guess. Plus, Evan’s always complaining about property damage…” Yuri, having instantly taken a liking to Bam, continued to explain her long story. The tall, animated woman, with a large red feather-like thing in her hair and a few black feathers floating to the ground around her from when she changed from her bird form into her human one, was from the court of this Urek person she was telling Bam about, but he was still wanting to know more about this one detail alone.

“But, you said the boy had blue hair, right?” Bam questioned excitedly, referring to the newcomer Yuri had mentioned previously. “What was he like? Did he come with all the others?”

“Oh yes, him!” Yuri bounced back on subject. “Yeah, he was this cute boy with light blue hair, very smart! Ahhh…what was his name…?” Yuri tapped her chin in thought, but Bam was already way ahead of her.

“That could be Khun! He’s really smart like that; it’s got to be him!” Bam knew of no other people with hair like that other than Khun’s family. His anticipation grew by the second, and he couldn’t wait any longer. “Yuri, please, can you take me to see him? Please?”

Yuri shrugged easily. “Yeah, sure, why not?”

It wasn’t him. Bam should’ve known it wouldn’t be, because the boy from Yuri’s story who smart-mouthed a prince and got invited to the family as a result sounded happy. But then, Bam still hoped that Khun was doing better, wherever he was.

But the Wolhaiksong people were very nice, all the same. The blue-haired boy, whose name was Hachuling, found Bam amusing kind of like Hwaryun did, and Urek invited him to stick around for dinner on the spot and was laughing and ruffling Bam’s hair with familiarity by the end of the day. They showed him around the castle and the stables and the sparring grounds, and he got to meet Yuri’s partner the other crow-human shifter Evan, along with all the other people who lived here in the court, like Kurudan and Ms. Ice Strawberry. They were all very friendly, so much so it was hard to believe they were really royalty. All Bam knew of rich people were Khun’s parents, Eduan and Agnes, and they weren’t exactly the nicest people. Bam assumed that royal people were probably all much worse, like the scary stories he heard about the king of his home nation, Jahad, who had people killed for treachery left and right. But here, Bam could hardly tell the difference between who was royal and who was just a servant.

“Ah, you really have to leave so soon?” Yuri questioned with a dejected air, although she made no move to try to force Bam to stay.

Bam smiled and shook his head. “No, sorry. I know it’s only been a few days, but, I really need to leave now. I have to find Khun as soon as I can. But thank you all so much for your hospitality!”

“Anytime, baby!” Urek grinned with arms crossed, his black prince-like garb doing nothing to make him look less casual and bright. “But hey, if you’re going to the northern country, it’ll take forever if you walk there! Come on, take a carriage with some food! My treat!”

“Oh!” Bam was surprised and felt a little awkward. “I-I can’t! That must be expensive; you don’t have to—”

“No, it’s not a problem at all!”

+++

In retrospect, maybe Bam should have just walked, but for entirely different reasons than what he was thinking about at the time.

“Well, what do we have here?”

The bandit leader, a woman with long icy blue hair and a sharp gaze to match, looked down at Bam like he was an insect and nothing more. Bam tasted blood in his mouth and felt it trickle down his cheek from where he lay on the ground, completely helpless to the whim of the Bloodmadder Rogues who came to steal his carriage, everything in it, and maybe also himself.

The leader’s sword drifted dangerously close to Bam’s neck. “Such a foolish child, completely unarmed. It really is a shame—”

“Wait!”

Bam blinked in more surprise than the leader woman had when a smaller figure, a girl about Bam’s age with short brown hair and a little horn in the midst of it, emerged from the small crowd of bandits and went straight up to Bam with a grin that didn’t look like the type of grin you made when you wanted to kill someone. “He’s cute; I like him; can I keep him?”

She…what?

The leader’s smiled softened a little, but it still looked haughty. “Oh really?”

“Yeah, big sis, I want to keep him!” she laughed easily. “Besides, it’s not you’re doing anything with him.”

_Huh…for sisters, they look nothing alike._

“Hmph, fine.” The leader shrugged. “You can do what you want.”

It wasn’t long until Bam found himself in an old room in the depth of the robber castle, bleak-looking if it weren’t for the random brightly colored tablecloths and curtains and crystal-like shiny things that Bam was sure had to have been put there by the girl sitting in front of him among the wood pigeons, still smiling but acting a little tamer than before.

“Yeah, you don’t have anything to worry about,” Endorsi assured him as she leaned back into her chair on the hard stone floor. “Maschenny won’t hurt you as long as you’re with me; they’ll all assume that if you try anything, I’ll just kill you myself.”

Bam wasn’t sure to be relieved or scared for his life, but…Endorsi seemed nice? “Umm…thanks? But, why…?”

“You seemed interesting.” Endorsi leaned back with her hands behind her head and smiled confidently. “I couldn’t just let my sister kill you—where would be the fun in that? I knew that if I acted excited, they wouldn’t do it. I’m the youngest one here, so they usually let me have what I want, especially if I talk like I’m eight.” She grinned conspiratorially. “So what about you? Why were traveling all alone like that?”

Bam, feeling more relaxed now that she seemed relaxed, told her everything—about Khun, about Hwaryun and the flowers and Wolhaiksong. “I’m trying to find him—I know he must still be alive, because the roses told me he wasn’t in the ground, and he wasn’t in the river, either.”

At that, Endorsi paused a second, then proceeded to laugh heartily. “Wow! You’re weird. Hey! I got an idea! Where’s Rak? Hey Rak!” she called towards the doorway in the back of the room.

Now Bam was confused again. Was that one of the other bandits? “Who’s Rak?”

In response, a very annoyed and booming voice sounded from the other side of the room. “What do you want, Tiny Bandit Turtle!?”

Bam yelped in surprise to see an enormous figure whose head nearly touched the ceiling come stomping into the room with a cape and a spear. He looked reptilian, kind of like…

“Bam, this is my pet crocodile!” Endorsi announced proudly, standing up to herald him in.

“Hmph, Rak Wraithraiser is no one’s pet!” the crocodile yelled back in indignation with his spear raised for emphasis.

“He’s going to help us!”

“Ha ha ha! Help you!? Who is this? Scrawny black turtle!”

“Umm…hi?” Bam waved awkwardly, assuming he must be the ‘black turtle’ in question, whatever that meant. “I’m sorry to bother you! I…umm…” Bam forgot what Endorsi’s plan actually was, if that was even mentioned.

“Bam is going to go see the Snow Queen!” Endorsi supplied.

“Wait, what?” Bam looked back to her in confusion. “Why?”

“You were heading north, right?” Endorsi explained with a shrug, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Well, that’s where the Snow Queen lives. She’s very mysterious and powerful, but they say she can see anything. Her eyes are special like that. So, if anyone knows where your friend is, she would. I figured Rak can take you there.”

“Ha, Rak doesn’t need to take you anywhere!”

“Really?” Endorsi tilted her head. “I thought you would enjoy hunting the Snow Queen?”

“Well I—” Rak cut himself off, suddenly taking a second to think. “The Snow Queen would be a worthy opponent…”

“See!” Endorsi sounded satisfied as she turned back to Bam. “So Bam, what do you say?”

“You’re…letting me go free?” Bam questioned hesitantly. As nice as Endorsi was, he assumed he still had to be a prisoner. Plus, he would be taking their crocodile with him. “Are you sure?”

“What, I thought you were in a hurry?” Endorsi shook her head. “No, it would be really nice to keep you around since it’s so dull around here, even with Rak and my knife that I use to scare the pigeons, but I’m not going to just keep you here just because.”

“Oh…well thank you, Endorsi!” Bam’s smile turned bright. “And thank you too, Rak! I’ll come back after I’ve found Khun, I promise! Maybe you’ll all be friends, too!”

At this, Rak was the one to laugh loudly. “The pathetic lost turtle? I doubt it!”

+++

It was clear that night that the season had changed to winter once again as the wind relentlessly blew biting bits of snow into their faces. Bam hid his face beneath the scarf Hwaryun gave him and he trudged through the snow and fought to keep his eyes on the light from Hockney’s lantern just ahead of him. Behind him, Rak followed, and although the warrior crocodile didn’t complain, Bam knew he must be getting cold, as well.

“We’re almost there!” Hockney rose his voice above the wind, giving Bam a welcome glimmer of hope. They had met the lonesome Sami in his home several miles back, and when they asked their questions about the Snow Queen, he told them of a woman he knew who lived nearby who knew far more about these things than he did. He was leading them there, but they weren’t able to make it before nightfall. It was certainly obvious that even with all of Bam’s experience traveling this year, Hockney was far more at ease with the snow and the rugged terrain than he and Rak were.

At the sight of the singular cabin on the hill, Bam breathed out a sigh of joy. Rak laughed boisterously.

“Yes, I believed in you this whole time, Weird Eye Turtle!”

Half an hour later found Bam next to a pleasantly warm fireplace, accompanied by Hockney, Rak (who had to sit on the floor in order to fit), and Garam, the woman they had been looking for. Although clearly exasperated with the appearance of her old friend plus two complete strangers in the middle of the night, she offered her hospitality anyways and brought out a pot of tea to keep them up.

“Her eyes are nothing special,” Garam explained point blank, surprising Bam a little, if only because Endorsi seemed so sure to have heard the opposite. But once she explained more, it made a little more sense. “They say she knows things, but all she knows is how to point out what’s wrong. I’ve heard stories that, many years ago, she too was a bright young girl who saw good in the world, but she dreamed of being a princess and sold her soul to do so. Or maybe, she just got infected with this same thing everyone else has.”

“Everyone else?” Bam questioned, listening to Garam with full attention in spite of it being so late at night.

Garam nodded, a heavy knowledge as well as a sadness showing clear in her cool blue eyes. “There’s a lot of people who have stopped seeing the good in things entirely. I don’t know how it happened; I just keep hearing stories. People who used say positive things, if only a little, now call everything bleak and ugly. That’s what the people in the Snow Queen’s court are like. I heard she took new people in this year to help expand her rule. I can’t tell you much, because I haven’t been to that palace in a long, long time, but I know she rules those mountains with fear.” She breathed out deeply, turning to look at Hockney. “Our land might be next. We can handle it, I’m sure, but I thought you should know.”

The thoughts were starting to race in Bam’s mind, and he wasn’t sure if he liked them. The Snow Queen, the eyes, the new people she took…it felt like this time, it had to be it. The resemblance to what happened was too clear to deny. But, unlike the way Bam felt when he thought that Hachuling might be Khun, he felt all at once fear and uncertainty, instead of joy. He knew by everything Garam said that this was the last place he wanted Khun to be.

“The new people? Do you think…?” Bam started to say out loud, prompting three curious glances. “Maybe…that is where Khun is? It’s just, I didn’t explain it before, but everything you said about seeing the bad things, that happened to him. So I know this has to be it. I have to get to the Snow Queen’s palace! Could you…could you please help me find it, still? Please?”

“Bam,” Garam spoke seriously. “This could be dangerous—no, it _will_ be. You can’t just walk in there. And I’m sorry, but you have to know that after so long, this friend you’re looking for might not want to see you anymore.”

“It’s true,” Hockney added, although he seemed reluctant to say it. “It’s like…the way I see things, I always want to see them in the moment. I want to capture the beauty and joy I see in that moment, even if it’s fake. Even if the person who’s smiling doesn’t mean it, I want to appreciate that smile as if it were real. Whatever happens afterwards remains in the moments afterwards. Bam, I know you care a lot about your friend, and I’m sure you had many good memories together, but sometimes when people grow up, they change. I don’t like to say it, but you might not be able to see Khun again like you remember him. Still, you can remember the memories you had and cherish the beauty in them, even if everything changed after that.”

“Pfft, such spineless turtles,” Rak grumbled, showing no hesitation in his counterargument. “If his friend doesn’t want to see him, why leave him alone just because of that!? Black Turtle should go punch the Lost Turtle in the face! Drag him away by force while I destroy the evil Snow Queen!”

“Heh, thanks, but…” Bam trailed off mid-thought, eyes somewhere between the fire and the wall. He appreciated the advice, but he knew the advice also didn’t feel quite right to him. He just wasn’t sure he knew enough to know what was right if that was wrong. “I understand what you all mean,” he started over, a little more certainty coming with each passing word. “And, it’s true. Khun might never change back to the way I remember him from before. Maybe I can never cure him from what infected him, and maybe he’ll become like Jahad and the Snow Queen. But, I have to try. I don’t want to leave him there alone, and I don’t want to just force him to leave either. I want to talk to him again; that’s all.” Bam smiled, feeling at once like this was the surest thing in the world. “I want to remember good things and be happy, but if I can, I want to make other people happy, too. Ever since leaving home, so many people have helped me on my journey—not because they had to, but because they wanted to. I didn’t know what that was like back in my home village. I didn’t know what it meant for people to care about each other without asking anything in return, but now I think I do. So that’s what I want for Khun. He was friends with me even when no one else was, so I’m not going to stop until I’ve tried everything to help him now.”

The three looked at each other, some hesitant but all somehow satisfied. “Well, it won’t be easy.” Garam sighed with her arms crossed. “But there might be a way.”

+++

Khun’s heart had nearly frozen entirely, but he wouldn’t know, since he had felt this cold for as long as he could now remember.

He stood in the icy room over a table covered in plans—of papers and maps of the mountains, of all the tasks he had to do. He had been here for days, weeks, months, maybe years—he didn’t know. He just knew he was here to think because that was what he knew how to do, which he was sure he could do even though his memories had faded to obscurity and everything he saw felt cold. His parents had wanted him to go to school in the city. Specifically his mother, since his father was always away from home doing things assumed to be important. He was supposed to live up to his family name. He wasn’t supposed to choose what he wanted. He wasn’t supposed to spend time with poor orphan servant boys without a future. He never remembered thinking they were right about that before, until the day came that he grew up.

Maria was like a shadow, and yet, she was the only thing left that was real. Her cold smile and her form like passing snowflakes was all Khun’s eyes knew to be true. She found the young boy in the snow after he ran away into the night, alone and terrified of what he saw. He couldn’t handle the truth then. He couldn’t handle seeing every face in that village sneer at him and mock, see them lie and cheat like they always did. He couldn’t handle looking into Bam’s eyes and seeing nothing but a weak, naïve kid, and not wanting to believe that was right. Even now, his memories didn’t match what he knew, so he got rid of them. He didn’t need them. Maria, the Snow Queen, said that here, he would grow up to be important.

He didn’t need them. He didn’t. Not even when, coming through his very door, his memories came to stare him in the eye.

“Bam!” The papers rustled in his shock. He was happy to see him. He wasn’t happy to see him. Bam was there, right in front of him, but he still didn’t look right. Nothing ever did.

“Khun!” Without warning, Bam ran in and threw his arms around him, and Khun so had forgotten what that felt like, it terrified him. “You’re here! You’re actually here!” He pulled away, tears shining in his eyes. “You don’t how long—but, are you okay? Is everything—?”

He didn’t finish before Khun backed away from him, his feet drawing closer to the wall. It was him. But it couldn’t be. Bam smiled, but he couldn’t see the smile as anything but fake. Bam wanted something from him. Bam was weak. But that wasn’t—it couldn’t…

“No!” His heart pounded in his chest as he shook his head. “You…you shouldn’t be here.”

“It’s okay; the Snow Queen won’t know—”

“She would! She’s magic. Bam, you don’t understand these things. You have to—"

“Khun!” Bam grabbed his hands, eyes trained on his. But the shape was distorted—this was why Khun didn’t want to talk to people anymore. This was why he only spent his days on work. “Please, come with me! We can leave this place together. I promise, I won’t leave you again.”

He didn’t get it. He was too small, too young. “Bam, I don’t want to leave.” Khun’s gaze turned cold, relieved of his previous shock. “Maria knows more than anyone else in the world does. And I’d rather be alone.”

“But Khun!” Bam didn’t let him go. “You don’t understand! She’s not good—”

“No one is!” Khun spat, shaking him off. “I know that now! Nothing is right in the world! So stop pretending!”

“Listen to yourself!” Bam turned angry, which surprised Khun, to say the least. “Whatever happened to how you were before!? You didn’t _care_ what they thought! You didn’t care what _anyone_ thought! You hated it when people were used! You hated all the bad things in the world, and you wanted it to be better! Did you forget!? Remember—!”

“I don’t _need_ to remember!”

“Well you should! Because you’re a good person, Khun! I know it!”

No…no, he wasn’t. Khun had always been selfish. But now, he didn’t know how to answer. Memories of when his sight was unhindered came crawling back into his mind from where they were cast away, memories of the one boy in the world who didn’t want to be friends with him for his name or his money, the one he reached his hand to in the long autumn grass even though no one told him to. And yet, the Bam he saw now wasn’t even quite like the memories, even without all the ugly things his eyes and his mind kept pulling his attention to. Bam was friendly, open, and kind, like he always had been, but there was a fire and a confidence that wasn’t there before. It was like little pieces had come together into his whole, borrowed from a journey long: the wisdom of an old but sharp woman of the garden, the energy of a bright and talkative shape-shifting crow, the freedom of a prince who wanted friends and didn’t care how people saw him, the feisty spark of a robber girl whose independence could not be broken, the patience of two hospitable loners who called the rugged mountains their home.

Khun knew nothing of how Bam got here. He didn’t know what happened along the way, But somehow, he saw it anyways. Somewhere, the ice began to crack.

“I’m not like that, Bam.” His heart started thrumming in its shell. “I was nothing like the kind of person you were. Please, just leave me.”

“No.” Bam remained earnest. “I…I know it’s tough. I know that people do bad things, all the time. I know the world can be ugly. Khun, when you left…I thought I was going to be alone again, forever. But I wasn’t. People helped me, even when they didn’t have to. Maybe I got lucky…I mean, I only got robbed and kidnapped once on the whole way here, but, I think, with the nice people I met, that was how things should be. And Khun, you could meet them, too! I think you and Rak would be great friends, and also Endorsi, and Yuri, and Hwaryun…I want you to meet them. Because, I never would have met them if I hadn’t known you first.”

Khun stood there in a daze, the cold breeze bristling across his cheek. He wanted nothing more, than just for all those memories to be real, while those memories were the very thing that was harder and harder to deny. He felt his right eye grow wet like water through a crack, his sense of balance reduced to nothing. The mirror shard was supposed to be the only thing keeping his heart from falling apart, but he didn’t need it.

His hand shot over his right eye as the pain seared through it, sound escaping through his mouth as Bam appeared to panic. He didn’t need it—he didn’t need it.

_“I think, I’ll be the new family head one day!” Khun announced proudly, the ten-year-old having come up with the genius plan on the spot._

_“Oh, that sounds cool!” Bam agreed, his legs swinging from the top of the rock as he cocked his head in thought. “But…which family?”_

_“Mine,” Khun explained as he leaned back in the grass. “I’ll have my dad’s job.”_

_“Do you like your dad’s job?”_

_“Well…” Khun thought about it a second. “I don’t know yet.” Maybe Bam had a point. “I guess I_ could _make a different job.” He thought about it more, and about how much he didn’t like spending time with his family as much as he liked being right here. “Or…make a new family, too.”_

_Bam’s questioning expression turned bright. “That sounds great!” He smiled wide. “Where will you find one?”_

_Khun shrugged. “Hmm, I don’t really know.”_

_“Well,” Bam spoke matter-of-factly and nodded. “If you can’t, then I’ll find one for you.”_

The glass shattered into pieces, and Khun screamed in sudden pain. Blood dripped down his cheeks, but he could breathe. He could breathe! He felt Bam’s grip on his hands again.

“Khun! Khun! Answer me, please!”

“I can see you.” The first thing Khun saw, albeit blurrily, when he opened his eyes again, were Bam’s eyes, worried and stressed but pure. Any ugly parts that still might be there, any weakness or naivety or stress or whatever Khun might have been told to scorn, none of that mattered anything at all. He smiled, for the first time in what felt like forever, ready to apologize, ready to thank him, but Bam beat him to all of that.

“Khun!” His countenance turned hopeful and excited once again, as every last doubt vanished from his mind. He leapt into Khun’s arms again, and this time, his friend embraced him back.

“Bam…let’s go home.”

“TURTLES!”

The moment was rudely shocked out of him as Khun looked up and saw a massive crocodile-thing kick down the door. What even…?

“Rak!” Bam released Khun and turned around. “Wha—?”

“Good, you fixed Lost Turtle! We have to go right now!” He grabbed both of them by the hand as thundering footsteps started sounding closer, with thundering roars accompanying them.

Khun recognized the sound of that roaring. “What the—you got the _polar bears_ after you!?” What kind of an idiot…?

“They’re no match for Rak Wraithraiser!!!”

Khun yelped as he got picked up and pulled along by Rak along with Bam into the entire assembled army of Maria’s guards…which he ran straight into.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

“AHHHHH!”

The angry army were knocked aside by Rak’s spear left and right, but he kept going for the wall.

“YOU IDIOT!”

“It’s okay Khun! You can trust him!”

It was at that moment that Rak busted straight through the castle’s icy wall, sending them all falling straight off a cliff into the snowy forest down below, before they were caught by an arc of pink magic coming from a certain lantern. All the while, Khun couldn’t help but look around and notice that he didn’t realize before how much color the sky and mountains really had, although even that didn’t hold a candle to the people around him.

+++

There were few who noticed when an old, previously abandoned house in Wolhaiksong territory got renovated into a home that looked like new that spring. Those who did might note with some amusement the three children and crocodile assembling building materials and arguing over their plans. The girl with the horn declared herself in charge of all decorating, but was frequently vetoed by the blue-haired boy who was generally in favor with whatever plan was opposite, especially if it was opposite to the crocodile’s. The golden-eyed boy in the white scarf had few opinions, so whenever he did, his friends rarely said no, although in the end, none of them knew what they wanted anyways.

Gratefully, they had plenty of help. The people from the Wolhaiksong castle visited frequently, and a couple of friends from up north were soon there to visit as well. The boy with the lantern they even convinced to stay longer than a visit. And it wasn’t long before the red-haired woman from the garden came there as well, to borrow their porch and kindly let them know all the things they were doing wrong.

Bam, Khun, and Rak descended from the mountain as a trio that one winter’s day with Garam and Hockney by their side, that same day that the Snow Queen left the land for good, for reasons unknown to most if not all. After saying their goodbyes, the three traveled back south to meet the robber girl Endorsi, who declared without debate that she would be joining them now. From there, they traveled back to Wolhaiksong.

Bam and Khun never returned to their home village in the land of Jahad, as their travels were busy taking them nearly everywhere else. The foursome made a home, but it didn’t end with four. One quest to help Hockney find a friend long lost led to one adventure after another. They found new lands, met new people—some known only for a time, and some who joined them for forever. There was a time, even, when they would meet the Snow Queen again, and face the Mirror one last time.

But that, as they say, is a story for another day.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, this was a lot of fun to write. It was almost painful making Khun so emotionally constipated to Bam so long, but yay, they're all good now! The BamKhunRak trio is born!
> 
> Writing thirteen-year-old Bam was basically just me writing season 1 Bam. Writing Khun and Endorsi at the same age was entirely me guessing, heh heh
> 
> So yeah, the Snow Queen story! If you haven't read it, I would definitely recommend it if you get the chance: it's a classic and it's interesting. And the core theme of how growing up doesn't mean you have to become a pessimist hit home with me, to be honest.
> 
> But with the changes...I was mean and removed the grandmother role altogether. I'll write Bam with best dad Jinsung one day, I promise! But yeah, mainly I wanted to give Bam a bit of development too—making him more insecure and lonely at the start but getting more confidence at the end and making some new friends as well. So like, with Hwaryun, he's the one tempted to stay because it's a place he's wanted rather than Hwaryun trying to keep him there like the witch in the original story. I really wanted to flesh out the scene at the end, too. I kind of took a lot of other inspiration for that part, as well—I wanted to specifically make it Khun's right eye as a symbolic reference, and honestly, I pulled a bit from SAO Alicization's scene with the breaking of the "Seal of the Right Eye" for the part when the mirror broke. Read: I made it more violent than the original fairy tale did XD
> 
> The ending was a self-gratifying move, honestly. Instead of doing the 'they go home and live happily ever after' ending, I felt like it would be more like them to make them all adventurers at the end in more of a mythos style than a fairy tale one, and I also just thought it amusing to make these nut jobs live together. Leave it up to the imagination what happens next. Although honestly, even though I need more story ideas like I need an arrow in my foot, I am thinking it might be fun to actually continue this one day. Just keeping going with the fairy tale universe and write short stories for the many adventures of RakKhunBam + Endorsi + all the others who will surely get involved. Just a thought.
> 
> So...yeah! The rest of the story is really just me writing it according to the characters involved, so again, credit where credit is due to pi-a-ia and their art for the inspiration. Also, making Yuri and Evan crow-shifters was kind of a RWBY reference.
> 
> Thank you all for reading!


End file.
